Unnamed coach: We'd be better off mediocre
This Travis Haney article on "how long the honeymoon will last" contains one of the stupidest things I've ever read:
As rousing and surprising as the starts have been for Florida and Michigan, rejuvenating suffering fan bases in the process, at least one Power 5 coach told me it’s not always the best thing to set the bar this high this early.
“Look what happened to Brady [Hoke at Michigan],” the coach said, referring to Hoke taking the Wolverines to a Sugar Bowl win in his first season in 2011. “He was great right away, and then you saw what it turned into. It can make it tough to keep expectation in check. A slow build is the way to go, in my mind anyway.”
Yeah, we really need to cut out this winning thing. Wouldn't want to get anyone too excited.
Here's the link:
October 15th, 2015 at 5:22 PM ^
In a hindsight analysis he might have a point, but there is no good way to implement this "strategy". As was said above, Harbaugh would punch this coach in the face.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:23 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:23 PM ^
It can make it tough to keep expectation in check. A slow build is the way to go, in my mind anyway.I can just picture this guy in his end of year performance review with the AD. "Look boss, sure I could've won more games... but we gotta keep expectations in check. You never want to do too much winning. It's bad for business. Next year we'll win a little more, maybe even a little more the year after that. Trust me."
October 15th, 2015 at 10:19 PM ^
Yeah, so what is the logical end point of this . . . he throws a game he's surprisingly winning so that the record does not look too good that year? I'd like to see that in action.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:23 PM ^
...and being mediocre in Year One are two different things (or so I would hope).
That said, setting the bar high is what we do at this University.
October 15th, 2015 at 8:37 PM ^
Go back and look at the preseason pronostications. Most people were suggesting that 7-5 was perfectly acceptable, many were saying that they could live with 6-6. Not a very high bar in my opinion and I am very happy Coach Harbaugh agrees.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:24 PM ^
This is not a dig at the OP but rather at journalists reporting about unnamed sources on bland subjects. I get if you have unnamed sources for a big story that's about to hit and it's building momentum. In this case, some random coach speaking about being "too successful". Eff ESPN and the coach who provided the comment.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:25 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:28 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:26 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:33 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:59 PM ^
Maybe Urban was the unnamed Power 5 coach!
October 15th, 2015 at 6:00 PM ^
Exaclty what I was thinking when I read the comment. Don't win early as a coach you might accidently win a National Championship! lol
October 15th, 2015 at 5:28 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:28 PM ^
Well . . . I think it was a little bit of not winning and some other things a little bit. I think we worked hard and showed some toughness and physicality out there on the field. I think those were some special young men no question. Did we put it all together? I think we might have not executed as well as we could have and some of that, but the effort was there with Brady. No question.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:28 PM ^
How pedantic.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:43 PM ^
And Churlish
October 15th, 2015 at 5:53 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:28 PM ^
...published. He wasn't sure why. He just knew something was wrong.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:32 PM ^
JH felt fine.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:34 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 6:07 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:30 PM ^
It took 0 years for Bo, went out and beat #1 OSU first year and went to the Rose Bowl, after getting a program that was .500 level for 10 years.
Bump Elliot
October 15th, 2015 at 7:10 PM ^
But calling it a 500 team doesn't take into account the 8-2 record the year before.
October 15th, 2015 at 7:46 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:31 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:32 PM ^
Hoke turned out to be incompetent . . .
October 15th, 2015 at 5:33 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:35 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:37 PM ^
followed by Riley and RR
October 15th, 2015 at 5:39 PM ^
SInce 2000, almost all of the national championships have been won by coaches in their first 3-4 years at that school. Mack Brown at Texas being the notable exception.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:41 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 15th, 2015 at 5:44 PM ^
7>5>3 QED.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:45 PM ^
what an asshat.
October 15th, 2015 at 6:00 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^
Historically speaking, elite coaches tend to win big by years 2-4. The fact that Michigan has a small but nonzero chance to win THIS year is a testament not only to the elite caliber of coaches we have now, but also to the type of recruits that Hoke brought in before his downfall. Urban Meyer has done nothing but win at OSU, including a national championship...are we to believe he SHOULDN'T have won in year 1? Come on. That's nonsense.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^
...one of the more surprising results to come out of that "what happens when you fire a coach" thing I did last year was that the longer you wait to have that first losing season, the more likely you are to be fired when it happens.
I figured if you'd run off ten straight winning seasons you'd get a pass when year #11 went south. But apparently that's not the way it works.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^
As rousing and surprising as the starts have been for Florida and Michigan, rejuvenating suffering fan bases in the process, at least one Power 5 coach told me it’s not always the best thing to set the bar this high this early.
It seems to me that nobody rally thought the bar would be this high this early (it would be more accurate to say, "that popular perceptions would have risen this quickly" maybe), or rather, I think even some of the predictions you saw on sites like ours back in August were pretty guarded and now seem conservative. You may not get off to a start quite like this every year, but for Harbaugh to do it in his first year has been nothing short of remarkable. He's setting the bar high within the team and the culture - I think many of us are just in awe that it translated into measurable in-game results this early.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:57 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 5:56 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 6:00 PM ^
he is a bad one. Obviously the play with this team is waaaayyyy different than that 2011 team. 2011 team had a lot of athletes and great playmakers but we know the ball bounced our way A LOT that year. If you know what i mean.
Also, has this guy not seen Harbaughs track record?
October 15th, 2015 at 6:04 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 6:05 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 6:02 PM ^
That coach does not sound like a competitor.
October 15th, 2015 at 6:10 PM ^
No one told Urban Meyer that...seems to have worked out okay for him! Elite coaches are consistently elite. Average coaches are consistently average. Brady Hoke gravitated to his lifetime coaching median as will JH. Kicking everybody's ass is pretty much what Harbaugh does.
October 15th, 2015 at 6:13 PM ^